


Desolation

by ArtisticRainey



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Destruction of a Thunderbird, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 06:45:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6944059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtisticRainey/pseuds/ArtisticRainey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something's gone wrong. Five can't be saved. And Alan witnesses what it does to his brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Desolation

It’s only when John’s hologram appears, tiny and stoic, that Alan pulls his eyes from the stricken craft in front of him.

“ _Thunderbird Three, disengage_ ,” John says.

It’s only after those words ring through the cockpit that the facts ring true. That Thunderbird Three is still clamped onto the satellite. That Alan is rapidly losing orbit. And someone is going to die.

“John, no,” he says, blond brows pulling together as he struggles with the controls. “I can do this.”

“ _Alan_.” A word of only four letters, but said with such weight. “ _Disengage_.”

And what will happen when he does? That’s all Alan wants to ask as sweat beads along his hairline, as his hands clamp so tightly on Three’s controls that his arms are cramping.

“ _You’ll tear Three apart,_ ” John says. His little hologram is putting on its helmet. “ _Just let it go_.”

“But –”

“ _No_!” And those two letters make Alan’s breath hitch. Because he’s never heard that tone from John before. “ _There’s nothing we can do_. _I’m heading to the pod._ ”

The pod was the last resort. It was deployed as a _just in case we can’t save her_. And now they can’t. Except Alan doesn’t want to believe that.

“John, I’m not walking away from this.” There’s desperation in his voice now. “I’m not walking away from _you_.”

But there’s no response because John’s cut the comm.

There are alarms blasting in Alan’s ears. There are warning lights flashing from all directions because Three isn’t hitting the atmosphere at the right angle and Alan knows that he has to pull away. And to do that, he has to let go of the satellite.

He has to let go of Five.

There are tears in his eyes as Alan disengages the grappling arms. He can just about make out the little yellow blur of the space pod fleeing as Five topples from the sky, on course for a grave in the middle of the Pacific.

He doesn’t remember pulling Three up. He doesn’t remember opening the cargo bay to let John dock. In fact, there’s only one thing he _does_ remember.

And that's the look of utter desolation on his brother’s face.

That is the look Alan will _never_ forget.


End file.
